Family
There comes a time in every college student’s life when they realize that they have a person or group of people that makes them feel completely at home. This could be a roommate, a friend group, an extracurricular organization, a professor, or even a particularly friendly janitor. For me, it’s the Original Cast.
Last Saturday, we had our usual rehearsal from 10 AM to 2 PM (we also have rehearsals on Tuesday and Thursday from 4-6 PM and Sunday from 1-5 PM), and then we all went home to finish packing for our first Retreat of the semester. We had dinner at Friday’s, and then we all ventured about an hour to Bell Buckle, TN, where we had rented a house for the night. The evening was filled with bonding exercises, a hot tub, dancing, and above all: belting. In fact, so much fun was had that we decided to hold a first ever Retreat Part 1.5 (named thusly to denote that it comes between Retreat Part 1 and Retreat Part Deux – a retreat that we have at the end of the semester before finals) last night (Saturday – since this will show as being posted on Monday) at a Chaffin in which some of the Cast girls live.
Both weekends were a ton of fun, and I can’t help but feel utterly at home every time I’m around people in Cast. I know I talk about the group a lot (both in my posts and in real life if you ever have a conversation with me), but I have such a strong bond with these people – we are all absolutely driven toward performing. I may be a Computer Engineering major, but there is something so special about performing on a stage – about sharing your art with an audience made up mostly of people who you’ve never met and who you will probably never see again. It’s incredible, and Cast is truly an asset not only to my life here at Vanderbilt, but to Vanderbilt as a whole.
If you’re going to be in Nashville from 21-23 April, contact me about coming to our show! This semester, we will be performing selections from Bye Bye Birdie, The Phantom of the Opera, Hair, and many, many more!